Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Jake Elliott and co. are running a "Let's Play" themed event at 8:00 PM on Thursday at Chicago's "beloved microcinema", the Nightingale. What is the LP and what's interesting about the form? What's the difference between LP and machinima, and what happens when that line blurs? (Extra credit: play the Stephen Lavelle classic Rara Racer for further commentary of the LP genre.)

Daphny and Liz Ryerson (and me!), among other artists, have made new original videos just for the show. I think some are even doing live Let's Plays as performance (!!!) Personally, I had never recorded an LP before and it felt really weird to me... are the results compelling at all? Find out in Chicago, tomorrow! Full description and info pasted after the jump:In 2004, Canadian author, filmmaker, and game designer Jim Munroepublished “My Visit to Liberty City,” a fictive travelogue set inRockstar Games’ “Grand Theft Auto III,” strolling through the seedyintersection of JODI’s experimental machinima, Chris Marker’simaginary tourism, and Mary Flanagan’s critical play. Since then,we’ve seen an explosion of the “Let’s Play” form on YouTube: videosfrom the fanboy-to-media-historian spectrum recording themselvesplaying through classic and contemporary games, always adding theirown commentary.We’re thrilled to have Jim Munroe in person at this Nightingale event,where he and several other artists will walk us through the videogamesthey love/hate/love-to-hate, applying their own critical &/orexpressive frames, revealing ghosts in the original games that mayhave been curiously buried, or eliciting ghosts not even present tobegin with.Screenings and performances by:Alfredo Salazar-CaroBlanche Vivian VillarougeBruno de FigueiredoDaphny Drucilla Delight DavidJim MunroejonCatesJon SatromKevin CareyLiz RyersonRobert Yang